The Download

Talking about bad timing, I woke up for nature's call at 4.30 am this morning. After doing the business, I realised that iOS 5 was being released this morning. So I quickly looked for it.

Before long, I was already started downloading. The 770Mb file would take about 3 hours. So I went back to bed. The file was finally downloaded just after 7am. Unfortunately it was time to head for work.

I persevered and synced the phone. Five minutes later, an error message. Apparently it was recommended that you reload the iTunes before the update. Well, I rushed to work instead then. The update would have to wait.

My Zeppelin Air

It has been a couple of weeks since I owned one of this. The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air. It is an iPhone dock with integrated stereo system. And it is one with steroids.

It was compact enough to be placed around the room, although the base can be overwhelming if placed too near the wall. It did the simple things well, and the AirPlay worked a treat. I was able to tune to BBC Radio One on iTune from my iMac and stream it wirelessly to the unit.

The sound is bass-intensive. A definite boon if you are a bass-orientated listener, as the treble could be drowned in all those low frequency. The midrange is however crystal clear. Listening to Adele's Rolling in the Deep would definitely make you tap your feet.

And you would be tapping your feet to the back unfortunately as the unit is rather expensive - and quite difficult to acquire in Kuala Lumpur. I had to order mine as the one that was available at Machines was a display unit.

For a mall unit, the sound coming out from it would definitely fill the room, but sound separation could have been better, but that would be mean as you would need a hi-fi unit to appreciate it as such. As it is, the sound was clear enough and the first time you hear the base coming out, you would be surprised.

So, now, overtime I reached home, I just dock my iPhone and just tap play. It also came with a cute remote control unit - easily misplaced though. It was certainly one of those gadgets that you would not be surprised if it came out of Cupertino - the Apple Campus.

The Route

So, I'm getting used to the journey into work and sensibly speaking, 45 minutes seemed to be the time required. I have tried a few route, and finally settles with the route via DUKE, toward Sprint Highway via Hartamas, cutting past Kerinchi Link straight onto Federal Highway just before UMMC.

From then on, it would be another 15 minutes as the ramp at Sunway can be occasionally congested. A left turn after that and I would already be at the carpark.

2011 Scott Kelby Photowalk, Part III

To finish things off, I thought I just publish the rest of the photos I took during the photowalk ..... There were tons of them.

Looked surprisingly similar to one Mona Fandey I thought ....The walk towards Bukit Nanas, passing a row of old shops. SOme of them were still opened, looking unchanged since the 60sThe Jalan Ampang end of Jalan HS Lee, where the Indian restaurants and shops were located. Some mean nasi daun pisang to be had here.A quite literal company logo ......Stop-over for lunch. Giving us ample opportunity to look at the shots so far.Shazni waiting for his order. How can one miss that bright orang shirt.Arrived at the end meeting point, where the camera deserved some well-deserved respite.Ripi, this year's walk organiser did a great job with the route.Fariz brought along his medium format camera. That managed a roll of eight shots.Fariz trying out the X100. On the pic was cousin Adi and Zol.

KLPF 2011

The initial plan was to give the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival (KLPF) a visit yesterday, but I could not escape early enough on the Saturday and when I leave the hospital, it was raining heavily. Traffic into Mid Valley would be murder at the time. Therefore, I had to give Ripi's talk - due at 1 pm on Saturday - a miss. I ended up going to the exhibition on Sunday instead.

So, there I was, just after 11.30am at the third floor of Mid Valley, where the Exhibition Hall was situated. The place was already packed and the program was well under way. The talks were done on a separate area. I spent the majority of the time in the main hall where the main vendors were.

Usually, a "photography festivals" were the place where new products were showcased. The only new product I managed to sample were the new Nikon 1 system. There was a rush to that booth, and the product were only displayed behind a case. I was familiar with the others, including the Fuji X10.

Sony's booth was probably the most spacious, with separate area for compacts, and the new range of dSLR.Lumix had their own gallery at the back of their booth which I thought was rather good.Canon brought more of their compact range to the floor. Unfortunately, I did not manage to sample the S100.

The usual suspects were there - Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Lumix. The most friendly booth were the Lumix and Sony. They had plenty of sales members at the booth and they seemed to know what they were talking about. In terms of bargains, not much to be had really. The price tended to be the standard retail, but here, they threw in freebies - cheap ones unfortunately. Unwanted cases, slow memory cards etc.

I was very clear when I came that I wanted to explore three things. First was a portable remote triggered flash system. There were two small booth had them, but it was pretty basic. I had to pass on that.

The second was screen colour calibrator. Something like the Spyder. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about unfortunately. Sigh! The last was a company that does high quality canves prints for my photo. I was lucky with that one. There were a few choices, and the one which impressed me was called "My Canvas Prints". Looking forward to see what they would come up with. I would be sending a few tests their way soon.

I missed Ripi's talk from Saturday. A shame really. I was sure it was a great one.I did not manage to find Luke Chua's photo. I managed to find Shazni's though. This one was of the Eiffel Tower.The exhibition was a success from the looks of things. But what made me wonder was the number of people turning up with their camera gears with them. The number of camera brought in was definitely more than the number on display. Maybe they wasted to snap the photos of the models there. Nah! I was happy just carrying my iPhone. I did not even bother to bring even the X100.

There was more people with camera, than the actual camera on the display booth actually.What were they shooting? Models of course. This was at the Korea Tourism booth.I couldn't help but admire these canvas prints at "My Canvas Prints" booth. Will definitely check them out soon.The only camera which caught my eye was the TX55 from Sony. Very compact and light, but the photos coming out from the thing was surprisingly good. It was going for RM1400. I might buy that one for Puan Anita. She was dissing on my old LX3 for being too big.

If you were into photography, these exhibitions needed your support. Watch out for the next installment.